39 comments:

I have no problems with you guys discussing the movies without trying to talk around the spoilers, and typically, I'll listen to all your episodes in their entirety straight through whether I've seen the movie or not. The way I look at it, if you're clicking on the episode, then you are giving the podcasters license to spoil the movie for you. If you don't want that, just wait until you see the movie before you listen to any of it. What's more, if there are spoilers in a particular episode, maybe just put a "warning: This episode contains spoilers. Listen at your own risk" disclaimer in the episode description.

I also agree with J.B. that, for me, the experience of viewing a movie is about more than just the twist or the spoilers, and that doesn't keep me from seeing it (most of the time. There are some exceptions, I suppose) as long as the movie is well made and interesting beyond whatever its twist is.

I must say, I'm firmly on the side of just dumping the pre-spoiler section. I certainly won't stop listening to the podcast if you keep it, but it seems like the real "meat" of the discussion comes from being able to reference specific moments from the movie in question. If I haven't seen a particular film and don't want it spoiled, I typically just don't listen to the podcast at all until I have.

And while we're not on the subject - don't all kids secretly want to see a CG ant getting psychoanalyzed?

FYI - another great behind-the-scenes book about the movie biz is "The Men Who Would Be King," by Nicole Laporte. The film is about the formation, running, and ultimate dismantling of DreamWorks. Antz is discussed at one point, and it appears that Jeff Katzenberg specifically designed the film as a "screw you" to Pixar and Disney, who were working on a bug's life at the same time.

I personally love the way you guys are doing it right now: non-spoilers for new releases up to a point, then spoilers for the end of the podcast. I wouldn't have listened to this "V/H/S 2" one if I knew I was going to get a movie that hasn't even opened in theaters yet spoiled. I clicked knowing I could listen up to a point without having major plot twists or scenes ruined... for a movie that I may or may not see when it gets a July release.

I agree, PLEASE don't get rid of the non-spoiler section. Like Patrick said, the way it is now both sides win - it's not that spoiler folks don't get the in-depth discussion they want, they just have to wait a few minutes.

Most of this applies to podcasts about new movies, where I do weigh what to see against the opinions of the F This Movie crew. Not to mention it's super fun to listen spoiler-free, see the movie and then come back to see how your likes/dislikes match up. Please keep things the way they are!

I'd think we can do with out the spoiler warning. The episodes I've listened to over and over again latley have been Evil Dead and OZ, and I had no intention of seeing them so I don't care. Iron Man 3 might have been an exception. But if I cared I wouldn't listen to begin with until I had seen the movie.

Haven't listened yet; I am going to listen to this podcast tomorrow morning, but I see a trending in the comments. I don't know if your podcast asked for feedback, but I (more often than not) am wanting you all to get to spoilers as soon as possible whether I have seen the movie or not. Sometimes the first 20 minutes feel like a "just the tip" conversation :) Maybe not that frustrating, but you get the point! In all seriousness, when you (regardless of the podcast's co-host(s)) start talking with no self imposed limits, the conversation goes to a different level...As a guy who's initial reaction is not to evaluate movies on that level, it is really fascinating and fun.

Haven't been able to really take part in Junesploitation, but it looks as though it is going awesome and you all are having a good time. Very cool idea.

I think the podcast would be served much better if you dropped the non-spoiler section. Like others have said, the meat of the discussion happens when you finally get into spoilers, and leading up to it always feels like you're really restricted on what you discuss, with the co-host asking "Can we get into spoilers yet?" If you do a show about a movie I haven't seen yet, I just save it and listen to it later when I've finally seen it. It's just that simple! Yes, my preference would be an all-spoiler-filled show.

Just to duck in and add my quick two cents - I like the current format and my "vote" would be to keep it - a fair number of times I have listened to only the spoiler-free segment and then went back and listened to the rest later. I think you all do a great job both pre- and post-spoiler warning. That being said, I understand the argument for dropping the spoiler-free segment and it wouldn't be even close to a deal-breaker to me, so do whatever feels right to you guys! I've actually started going to a lot more movies in the theatre lately (per my New Years Resolution I've already been to more this year than at least the past couple years combined) so it might not be such a big deal (for me) anyway.

I've seen V/H/S/2 so looking forward to listening to the rest of this in its entirety later!

P.S. I probably don't need to tell this crowd about it, but Film Crit Hulk recently did a great article on spoilers and the different ways we consume media and I would recommend everyone give it a read.

Sol, I wouldn't mind if Patrick compromised and the spoiler-free portion of the podcast were much, much shorter than the spoilered part. For "V/H/S 2" it would have meant 90% of the podcast would have been spoiler-loaded instead of spoiler-free, and that would have been fine by me. Personally the "Green Lantern" podcast to me strikes the perfect balance between even spoiler-free and spoiler-filled halves, both of which are entertaining and animated discussions.

I suppose the other possibility would be to just let the conversation flow however it does and then in "post" they can go back and add a sound effect or pause or something to warn people that spoilers are ahead.

During the big Game of Thrones "spoiler crisis" it really pissed me off that so many people felt the rest of the world should stifle their conversation until THEY had seen it which is not only moronic assholery at its finest but completely impractical. So bottom line for me is that I don't feel I have any right to dictate how anyone else wants to talk about movies and it's up to me to choose when/how I want to join a conversation.

I'm sure it'd be much more labor intensive having to go back and bleep out individual spoilers.

I agree that once a movie is released or a show airs there's no obligation to hold back (within reason), but that's a different situation to this - I value the opinions of the F This Movie! crew and I really appreciate being able to listen to a mini-discussion before going to the theater, and having the rest for later.

I often find myself conflicted at the spoiler cusp (the moment it goes from non-spoilers to spoilers) if I haven't seen the movie yet. I usually end up continuing with the show, but if I have been excited for a movie I will sometimes wait til I've seen it. At these times I am glad there is the separation because I get my F-Fix plus a general review from people whose opinions I trust/respect/usually agree with.

The conflict for me (and this may just be me) is that 1) I enjoy the show so I want to listen to as much of it as I can regardless of what movie is being discussed, and 2) I want to join in on the community chat about the show afterwards which usually peaks the day or two following the show's release before moving onto the next posts topic. For these two reasons I often just listen to whatever is put out there because if I wait a week or so until I've seen what's out then I can miss the participation aspect of the site. While its not about spoilers as such, it would maybe be beneficial to have a couple days warning about what movie is going to be the focus of the show that week so anyone who has the same desires as me can play catch up first. No biggie, just an idea.

Absolutely agree with the idea that F This Movie should give us some notice as to what movie they'll be covering. For awhile it was a running gag that they would talk around the subject matter at the beginning of the actual podcast (in spite of the fact we all knew what it was about from the title) so it seems like they're going for a certain element of surprise - to the extent that when JB revealed in his article that the upcoming podcast was going to be about A Hard Day's Night I felt like he'd really spilled the beans. But that serves no purpose really - we'd be just as surprised whenever they told us and wouldn't it be better to wake up to a new day's podcast having already watched the movie the night or two before?

Think about that one, guys! You could even just Tweet it to reward your "Followers"...

My policy has been:1) If I plan to see the movie regardless of what you guys think, I don't listen at all. Because I can usually tell from the first few mentions what you guys thought of it (if it's not spelled out in the sentence in the post).

2) If I'm on the fence about it I'll listen a little. Sometimes not even going as far as spoilers.

3) If I decide not to see it based on that or I'd never see it to begin with (V/H/S 2, for instance) I go ahead and listen to it all because I like to know what's going on even in movies I don't watch.

However...while I can't get specific with an example, I do remember a few times were some thought was stopped by it not being "spoiler time" and when the time came it had been forgotten. I know you guys want these podcasts to be unrehearsed and conversational. But maybe it would help avoid that if you guys quickly go down a little list of what each of you consider spoilers that way both know not to bring up such and such until that time and not have to decide that mid-broadcast?

No, that's not the point. Audiences today apparently feel like everything is a punchline, there's no such thing as 'non ha-ha funny'.

For example, I just got back from Man of Steel. There were people laughing out loud at the sight of Superman in handcuffs. Yeah guys, good work, you're right - Superman is really strong and could break those things any time he wanted, lol.

So glad to hear JB say that it is taking longer for him to form opinions on movies the older he gets. I feel a little embarrassed sometimes not having a fully thought out stance on movies straight after ive seen them and/or have my opinion on a movie change so much in the time after seeing one. I have the motto "I reserve the right to change my mind", and I dont really think its a bad thing to take your time to formulate an opinion, but its just nice to hear someone else admit going through the same thing. Reason #365 Why we love JB.

Generally speaking I like the current unofficial rule that exists now with podcast, older movies jump right into spoilers and new stuff go about half and half. While for the most part spoilers don't bug me (although every once in a while a movie like Seven will show up and I am really glad I didnt get that spoiled) I think its a nice courtesy to the general listening public. So in closing I can listen to full on spoiler podcasts unless the movie has that rare twist that is really really good.

Just listened this morning... I was glad to hear that all the feedback was solicited! Anyway, this podcast confirms my initial thought... if you were to http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/3C8JHQC this question, my vote would be to spoil all day!

On another note, JB made me think about boobs early in movies, which in younger years was kind of a pastime for me. My first thought was a movie with Leslie Nielsen I think was called Repossessed. It was a sloppy parody of The Exorcist. There may have been a spectacular pair before the opening credits.

I think you should speak your mind freely for the entirety of an episode, regardless of spoilers. We all know what we're about listen to when we click play (because the name of the movie is in the episode title) and therefore can save it if we don't wanna hear spoilers. For me, your spoiler sections have actually made me want to watch movies I'd dismissed. Or in this case, convinced me never to watch VHS2 due to the dog thing at the end. Seriously, not cool. I still have a certain scene of I Am Legend seared into my brain because of what they did to a dog. My wife and I re-watched To Kill A Mockingbird last week and I'm still trying to figure out if they really shot the dog in that movie. These things keep me up at night.

It's been a long time since I've see it - and I don't exactly stare at that moment when I do - but common Google wisdom says that someone pulls the dog's back legs out from under him and that it's visible enough to see.

It's kind of funny, I never really put much thought into the spoiler vs spoiler-free sections until this very episode when you had to resort to charades to try to signal things to each other during the spoiler-free section. Not the first time you've done that (and I think we all know charades = RADIO GOLD) but it really seemed to kneecap the discussion you wanted to have. Personally, I try to see whatever movie you're discussing before I listen to the episode, but I can see why people appreciate the spoiler-free section. It's like Sophie's Choice, only about something that matters, amiright? Have you considered just consigning the spoiler-free section to a brief statement at the beginning? "We recommend/abhor this movie, here's why" and then dive into a meatier discussion from there? Just a thought, but the show is always entertaining either way.

I'm on the pro-spoiler team. If I don't want to have the movie spoiled, I don't listen to the episode clearly marked with the title of the movie. I appreciate your discretion during the "what have you seen lately" section as well as "list episodes", since several movies come up and I probably haven't seen all of them. But when the show is called "Iron Man 3", I know I should prepare for the conversation. I personally can't stand listening to half an episode, so if you guys talk about a movie I know I'll want to see, it actually motivates me to go and see the movie as soon as possible. Your podcast helps boost opening weekend box office by at least $8!

Got to the rest of this - I think your respective assessments of V/H/S/2 are both completely fair - must say even I feel like I need to go back and watch the "Cult Segment" again because it sounded better and better the more you guys talked about it. I would definitely recommend it to any horror fan - as a whole, it's not really that good, but there's enough there that it's hardly a waste of time. I've sat through far worse.

And I feel like we got a bit of an answer as to why all of this digital footage is being put on VHS tapes - from what I gleaned from the wraparound segment (I'd call it the reacharound segment but it's nowhere near that pleasant), because VHS tapes are an electromagnetic medium something about the field they produce by watching them in a particular order is supposed to do something. What, I don't know, hopefully we'll find out by V/H/S/7!

I say dump/severely restrict it. Different podcasts for different folks, but if I'm interested in seeing a movie, I'm going to read/skim a few reviews, and check the Metacritic score. (Ebert's rating used to be the third part of this trifecta, but alas...) No offense, but I simply won't listen to any part of anyone's podcast that discusses a movie I want to see in depth, spoilers or no. I *will*, however, happily listen to one of your podcasts on a movie I've already seen, and while your non-spoiler chats are good and interesting, your spoilerific ones are just plain better.

So, my compromise vote would be for a brief (3-5) minute review/thoughts on whether the movie at hand is worth seeing, and then diving straight in to the good stuff. :)

You should talk freely about the movies. I wanted to see the midnight showing I watched last night, so I simply did not listen to the episode until now. I think I speak for everyone (as long as everyone is me) when I say that we want to hear your uninhibited opinions on these films. Is this 39 days too late?

As for V/H/S 2, I too hate the logic behind it. It is frustrating for me to watch the filmmakers try to justify the use of tapes, especially since the films are vivid and high definition. The murky, claustrophobic feel of those old VHS cameras creates an environment that, to me, is much scarier than anything this movie tries to throw. Think of "The Fourth Kind"--the creepiest parts of that movie were the low quality tapes they showed. It harkens back to shows like Cops, which in my young, twenty-something memory, is the first "reality" TV. That grit automatically makes it more real to me and it is a shame that they forgo that feel in this version (which obviously doesn't work in the way that they set up each of these segments, but that's part of the same logic problem).

The motion thing was not a problem for me, and maybe that was because it was in the small theater (which was disappointing. Thanks, Rocky Horror). But since I saw it in a theater, I want talk about that aspect of the experience--is it common for many people to laugh nervously at the same time? Or are we so desensitized that this stuff becomes laughable? I didn't think the effects were laughably bad or anything. I don't understand. Whenever I see horror movies at the Music Box, people laugh throughout.